In recent years, the field of alternative advertising has become more competitive, and is expanding but the limited size of the audience and audience response has restricted potential growth in this area. Accordingly, the need exists for a novel way of increasing the audience gaining customer attention, interest and motivation as a basis for greatly improved customer response as measured by the percentage of customers who observe and respond to the advertising as well as providing expanded business volume.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,209,004 describes a weatherproof display device mounted on a newspaper vending machine. The patent provides a vertical support member that places a housing for printed material at a distance of about 9″ above and behind the vending machine. There is no provision for mounting a support for the printed material perpendicular to a side or above the top surface of the vending machine. U.S. Pat. No. 4,144,664 shows a transparent cover for printed material that is supported by two parallel laterally spaced apart triangular reinforcing struts connected to a mounting base located a few inches below the transparent cover. Consequently, printed material within the transparent cover panel must be spaced away from the surface of the vending machine and the device is unable to accommodate pointed material of various thicknesses. Prior vending machines have another shortcoming; because a message is easily forgotten, it is difficult for the customer to respond.
In view of the deficiencies of the prior art, it is one object of the invention to find a novel way of gaining a customer's initial attention as well as improving customer response to an advertisement.
Another object of the invention is to provide an advertising device and method that is unusually economical as measured by a ratio of advertising cost to customer response.
Yet another object of the invention is to provide an advertising device and method that is rugged in construction, reliable in operation, easy to set up and maintain, and lends itself to convenient removal and replacement of printed or electronic advertising copy.
These and other more detailed and specific objects and advantages of the present invention will be better understood by reference to the following figures and detailed description which illustrate by way of example but a few of the various forms of the invention within the scope of the appended claims.